Steven Moffat does it again. With just over a week to go before the Day of the Doctor 50th anniversary special, we have the Night of the Doctor. And, as we know now, it’s not the Doctor we were expecting.

It just goes to show that everything’s up for grabs, everything we know is wrong and Doctor Who is going to have the most exciting week in its five decade long history.

To have kept Paul McGann’s role in the fiftieth celebrations a secret just shows what a class act the Doctor Who production team are. And it makes you wonder what else they’re holding back.

Paul McGann then… (Picture: BBC)

I wonder if McGann told Colin Baker beforehand? Because Who Six has been grumbling he’s not involved. Maybe there are more surprises to come? Here’s hoping.

So what’s changed? A lot. Massive chunks of Who history now have to be rewritten. Put simply, The Night of the Doctor couldn’t be a more perfect teaser, or more useful primer, to the Day of the Doctor.

McGann’s Doctor gets his regeneration

There has always been a question mark in the succession. We never saw Paul McGann’s Doctor regenerate into anyone.

There was speculation that he was one and the same as Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor. Indeed, once John Hurt was revealed earlier in the year as what we must call the War Doctor, there was a notion he was an older McGann. Now we know.

And with that last chance saloon tribute to his Big Finish companions, maybe all those audio adventures count as canonical? A spin-off series is absolutely in order because it was great to see McGann in action once more. The eighth Doctor deserves more episodes.

What are the Regeneration rules now?

John Hurt as the War Doctor – Has the regeneration rule book been re-written? (Picture: BBC)

It’s time to rip up the regeneration rule book and that’s good news. It seems like McGann’s Doctor actually died and was brought back to life by the Sisterhood of Karn. Any law about 12 regenerations and 13 Doctors now seems wrong.

As to whether John Hurt is a Doctor at all now seems moot. We just don’t know and that’s fine. And with an elixir, a Time Lord can choose male or female, fat or thin, young or old. That’s new news and one key question answered yet again: the Doctor could be a girl.

Cass would rather die than go with the Doctor because he’s a Time Lord (Picture: BBC)

The Time War isn’t a battle between good and evil. The Time Lords, as shown by Cass’s refusal to enter a Tardis, are considered as evil as the Daleks. No longer ‘dusty senators’ they are a bellicose and destructive civilisation, as has been hinted at before. That’s good to know: they always seemed like a weird bunch.

Physician heal thyself

Doctor no more (Picture: BBC)

The Doctor believes his name shows him to do good. So he must opt to become a warrior to take part in the time war. He takes the choice out of a sense of both duty and desperation. He has refused to fight so far.

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